Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Senate Approves Yellen

This is not going to be long or have any links. However, I am simply going to express my pleasure that finally the US Senate has confirmed the nomination of Janet Yellen to serve as Chair of the Board of Governors of the US Federal Reserve System. One can argue that there should be no Fed or that it should be structured differently or that it is so under the thumb of this or that interest or set of interests that she will not be able to do anything useful or worthwhile. But I think in spite of all of this, she is the best person to sit in that seat and deal with the issues that the Fed faces, which are very difficult indeed. She is intelligent, knowledgeable, and with a calm personality that is needed for a position of such responsibility where one may have to face emergency situations.

I note that there were many Republicans voting against her. I think that much of that was due to pressure from outside groups, particularly Heritage Action which has had the gall to "score" this vote thereby pressuring GOP senators to vote no, with this decision to score being based on their complaint that the Fed has become "politicized." That this is supremely hypocritical is just screamingly obvious.

I shall also note that back in 2009 I was the first person to publicly call for her to receive this appointment. I wish her the best in this challenging job.